After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory

Truth and Truthfulness: An Essay in Genealogy

16. Les mots et les choses

Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity: An Essay on Desire, Practical Reasoning, and Narrative

External forces have pushed Central-East Europe's nascent political science disciplines toward convergence: the European Union's educational policies, the funding and training activities of public and private Western players, most prominently the ‘Open Society’ institutes and organizations established by financier George Soros. However, considerable disparities persist regarding national and international cooperation, research quality, and representation of professional interests. These disparities are in large part explained by the fact that the institutionalization of political science has been stunted in places where ‘hybrid’, semi-autocratic political regimes have emerged.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Feps.2010.11.pdf

Political Science in Central-East Europe and the Impact of Politics: Factors of Diversity, Forces of Convergence

IN ENGLISH: This study aims at empirically improving public policy theory by unfolding the concept of policy goals and contributing to their classifications. The research focuses on the thematic dimension of policy goals and investigates 11 Croatian governmental strategies using qualitative content analysis. The research identifies original policy goal types and classifies them into sector‐, process‐, evaluation‐, instrument‐, and value‐oriented goals. Article concludes with a more comprehensive definition of policy goals, as governmental statements about desired futures in relation to specific sectoral purposes, values, and principles in democratic political systems, policymaking process improvements, necessary instrumental innovations, and evaluation standards that should be fulfilled. The application of this definition and developed goals’ classification reveals that elements of policy‐process theories, evaluation research, policy design theory and instrument analysis, democracy theory, and sector‐specific research need to be synthesized to better understand the concept of policy goals and to advance their research. --------------- IN CROATIAN: Cilj ovog clanka je empirijski poboljsati teoriju javnih politika razvijanjem koncepta ciljeva politike i doprinosom njihovoj klasifikaciji. Istraživanje se fokusira na tematsku dimenziju ciljeva politike i istražuje 11 hrvatskih vladinih strategija pomocu kvalitativne analize sadržaja. Istraživanje identificira izvorne vrste ciljeva politike i klasificira ih na ciljeve usmjerene na sektor, proces, procjenu, instrument i vrijednost. Clanak zavrsava opsežnijom definicijom ciljeva politike, kao vladine izjave o željenoj buducnosti u odnosu na određene sektorske svrhe, vrijednosti i nacela u demokratskim politickim sustavima, poboljsanja procesa donosenja politika, potrebne instrumentalne inovacije i standarde ocjenjivanja koje treba ispuniti. Primjena ove klasifikacije i klasifikacija razvijenih ciljeva otkriva da elemente teorija politickih procesa, istraživanja evaluacije, teorije dizajna politika i analize instrumenata, teorije demokracije i specificnih sektorskih istraživanja treba sintetizirati kako bi se bolje razumio koncept ciljeva politike i kako bi unaprijedili svoja istraživanja.

Unboxing the vague notion of policy goals: Comparison of Croatian public policies

Upravljanje kroz zločin: kako strukturirati državu i društvo oko pitanja zločina

The author argues that any discourse analysis, as well as other approaches in social sciences and humanities, cannot ultimately avoid the truth and ideology distinction. The first part of the article provides several glimpses at the Western philosophical tradition that preserves the value of truth. In the second part, an idea for political science, grounded in such a history of ideas, is sketched. After a brief discussion of what is ideology as opposed to truth, the author proposes a thesis about ideology, identity and power, and several heuristic ideas how to develop it. In the third part, he briefly provides examples from political and policy analysis that correspond to such a project. In the final part, he explains the importance of preserving the distinction between ideology and truth in the discursively postulated “post-truth” era. This combination of epistemology, science, analysis and teleology is reflected together in one political area of utmost importance for political science operating in the public sphere: the politics of naming.

/pdf/ideology-and-truth-the-return-of-the-old-couple-in-the-post-4gh55jkyqz.pdf

Ideology and Truth: The Return of the Old Couple in the Post-Truth Era

The problem of ontology in the work of Michel Foucault is discussed. First, ontology is defined as the layer of a social theory, encompassing the essential building blocks of the social world presupposed by that social theory. Second, three different ontologies in Foucault’s work are identified, which roughly correspond to the chronological phases of his theorizing: the ontology of discourse (1960s), the ontology of power (1970s), and the ontology of the self (1980s). While it is not easy to bring these different ontologies together, an attempt at ontological synthesis is made via the concepts of productivity of power and governmentality. A single “un-ontology” of aleatory power-politics is constructed as a result of that theoretical operation. Finally, some basic guidelines for political theorizing and research are drawn from that ontological world picture attributed to Foucault’s theory.

Krešimir Petković

Papers

Unboxing the vague notion of policy goals: Comparison of Croatian public policies

Upravljanje kroz zločin: kako strukturirati državu i društvo oko pitanja zločina

Ideology and Truth: The Return of the Old Couple in the Post-Truth Era

Michel Foucault and the Ontology of Politics: E Pluribus Unum?

Political Science in Croatia: Dropping the Plural